MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas prepared Bostonians for a ride into the future when he announced on Dec. 21 the MBTA’s plans to transform the current transit system to an automated, prepaid fare system that resembles systems such as New York’s or Hong Kong’s.

He promised transportation users that T tokens would be a thing of the past by the end of next year, replaced by CharlieTickets

– fare cards that will alter the way travelers travel.

”2006 is the year of Charlie. This system will transform how riders use the T,” Grabauskas said in a statement.

Grabauskas’ announcement marked the first time the MBTA set a official timetable on the systemwide implementation of the CharlieTickets, although officials have spoken of a new fare system for the past few years.

Many students and permanent Boston residents, especially those who travel to Logan Airport via the Blue Line, have already utilized the new fare cards, which are in use in various Silver Line and Blue Line stations.

Grabauskas said he believes the entire Orange Line will be converted by next summer with the remaining T stations to follow by the end of year, although he could not pinpoint the exact conversation time of the other T lines.

The timetable for the $200 million installation project is difficult to estimate, Grabauskas said, due to a number of factors, including needed renovations in some T stations.

To ease the transition from T token to CharlieTicket, MBTA officials plan to distribute the CharlieTickets in place of regular monthly passes starting in January 2006. The CharlieTickets will allow riders to renew their monthly passes at new automated kiosks that have already been installed.

According to T officials, the benefits of the CharlieTicket will be extensive, as it will speed service, make the system more accessible and enable customers to transfer from bus to subway without buying separate tickets.

The benefits cited by T officials echo similar pronouncements made by the New York Metro Transit Authority when they introduced their automated fare passes – Metrocards – in 1995.

According to MTA representatives, Metrocards have greatly improved transit riders’ experiences in all aspects.

Automated kiosks will enable riders to choose the amount of money they want to put on their fare cards, paying by cash, credit or debit card. Kiosks will then eject laminated paper cards roughly the size of a driver’s license for the rider.

At the Logan Airport Blue Line station, where the new fare gates have already been installed, a rider inserts the CharlieTicket horizontally into the fare gate slot and then retrieves it from the top of the turnstile where it is ejected vertically. The card will be used systemwide with the fare subtracted from the card’s value after each use.

The MBTA has been under pressure to increase revenue and riders, and the new automated fare system should allow for user and income tracking while making it substantially more difficult for passengers to evade fares, according to T officials.

Riders should expect to see the number of automated kiosks where customers can buy monthly, weekly and visitor passes to increase from nine to about 78 by the end of next year.

MBTA authorities believe this will increase the sales of monthly passes from 55 percent to between 70 to 80 percent – numbers comparable to other cities that converted their transit systems to fare cards, such as New York City and Washington D.C.

The automated fare collection system has run into minor difficulties over the past year at the stations where it has already been installed.

According to reports in The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, fare gates have broken and not moved fast enough, riders have become frustrated over converting tokens into tickets at the CharlieTicket kiosks, children’s strollers have caused malfunctions at the gates and faulty feeders have rejected currency.

T workers have moved quickly to correct these problems, according to MBTA officials. The feeders that rejected currency were replaced and other issues with the fare gates have also been addressed Garbauskas said.

The new system is already proving effective, Grabauskas said, as revenue is up and fare evasion down where it has been implemented.

For example, in October, the Blue Line netted $887,408 – a 35 percent increase from a year before. T officials cited this as proof the new collection system is greatly reducing fare evaders, which officials estimate cost the agency $2.5 million annually systemwide.

CharlieTickets are named after the Charlie character from the song ”Charlie of the MBTA,” about a man forced to ride Boston-area transit system forever because he did not have the required nickel exit fare.

Eventually, the T will widely introduce more permanent ”CharlieCards,” which are sturdier purchase cards that can be linked to a bank account.